If it has been properly dried (kiln-dried )it should keep nicely. Also something to consider is how the veins are oriented. Is this a cut length-wise from the center ? If you look at the end you don´t want to see a lot of angle in the veins running through the plank but mahogany is very resistant to warping hence it´s wide use in fine furniture.

I have a piece of 45" x 36" 3/4" thick red brass plate! I'll cut you out a pair in the dimensions you want but you round off and polish it yourself.$265/pair plus shipping! It is a deep golden color.I bought the plate for just this purpose. The finshed weight would be around 42-45 lbs. ;D The mass/damping to the cabinet would be an asset IMHO. But it would look cool to have polished plate on top too!

BTW My idea would also include laminating a piece of appropriatly contoured 1/8" or 1/4" thick black "Sintra". It is a sign making plastic sheet that is available at any local sign shop and is inexpensive and easy to cut and sand. Glued to the bottom of the brass top plate with a thin coat of urethane based adhesive any ringing tendencies of the brass would be soundly, silenced.

[quote author=franksmith link=1138234258/15#22 date=1138735519]Thanks for the offer Chris but I would prefer finished granit for mass loading, concidering the price.

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Well I understand what you mean Frank, but I priced 3/4" Brass plate new and it turns out to be only available as naval (red) brass and it is in the neighborhood of $7-$9/pound. At 90 lbs. for (2) pieces 13.5"x13.5" if you can even find it that thick on the used market I got it for under $3/pound. It took me over a year to find a single piece on EBay that would yield two pieces big enough for HDT top plates. No salvage yard around here has ever seen a piece this big. Turns out I got a piece big enough to get 3 sets of HDT top plate out and leftovers for feet "pucks" or other decorative trim. The piece I have would have cost $3K + or - a few hundred if it was new. It aint gold (well it is) but it seems like it when you spend hard cash for it. I will likely have to hear the MkII to see if I want to do a build of it with the brass top plate and polished brass tube quarter round corner capping (1" radii). This is a serious back burner project considering what I have coming up.

I will give comment on the sound soon, I want to live with them for somes times before.

For now I really like them, I'm listening to the music instead of focusing on the caracteristics which is a very good hint of their qualities.

The cones are like them when ordered from decware, they are suppose to be coated but I don't have clues that they are.

Like discussed before, decware can't gel wax them anymore because of the new cone material or something like this. I'm not sure that the gel waxing was the major factor of the alternative tuning having heard the original ones.